Fort William out and about…
Doddy | Blog, Mountain Biking Uk | 04/06/2011 14:51pm
Afternoon chaps, it’s sunny and warm here in Fort William; the track is looking as gnarly as ever and the pits are full of eye candy and the smell of midge repellent…
It’s always the event we love the most through the year- and seemingly everyone else too judging by the swarms of people who come out here to spectate. The journey up here alone is pretty spectacular- be in driving down form Inverness airport or heading up from Glasgow and past the incredible scenery in Glen Coe.
Imagine living here, with that for a back garden...
It’s a full house again this year and the course is looking rougher than ever- Greg Minnaar yesterday mentioned on Twitter that it was so brutal he wasn’t sure how many more runs he could do in practice.
Peaty, in the woods
And it’s not just rougher up top- the mid section has some interesting changes with new lines through the woods and some technical and really challenging lines. We watched Peaty and Greg Minnaar sessioning a few sections- both of them struggling to squeeze speed out of the horrible rooty twists through the trees. This could well be a make or break on race day- clean riders through here will undoubtedly get away faster.
There are some other features too, including a new road gap jump- one of those all mouth no trousers obstacles that looks pretty intimidating to you or I, but the pros are braking into it and are literally plopping off the end to set themselves up clean for the s-bend that follows.
The new road gap feature looks big, but riders are braking in to it and are literally rolling off it
As usual the course spits riders through the archway jump and in to the arena to a huge cheer from the crowd- race day tomorrow will be amazing, but right now we’re getting excited about the 4X race tonight- with many great riders from the UK including Oggy, Pat Campbells Meatballs Jenner and Scott Beaumont.
Rob Warner and his posh tramp stamp
Anyhow, got to head back out to see what’s going on. Check back for more updates, and check out our Facebook page and Twitter feed for details as they come- when we have signal that is! Currently there only seems to be signal in the media tent, which is where I am writing this with lots of very boring people…
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- The monkeys taking the gondola up to the top station for some fun and games
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- Lovely weather on the way up here- and stunning Scottish views
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- A gert lump of rock
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- Imagine living here, with that for a back garden…
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- Jamer and Doddy waiting for the media tent to open
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- Cow Bells are definitely the sound of the Fort this year
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- Braap
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- How many flashes?
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- Peaty, in the woods
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- Jamer modelling the FT Bill special edition MBUK t-shirt
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- Greg Minnaar checking out the new wooded section
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- Martyn Ashton enjoying the sunshine and filming for Bike Riders United
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- The new road gap feature looks big, but riders are braking in to it and are literally rolling off it
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- We bumped in to MBUK photopgrapher Robin Kitchin- who found some amazing looking deer antlers on course. Not jealous at all!
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- It’s an army of ants walking down the course- making the most of the Scottish hillside
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- The run in to the hip jump is baked solid- riders are having to squash this to avoid being bucked
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- Rob Warner and his posh tramp stamp
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- Possibly the coolest dog around- donning it’s own banner and press pass!
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 4th, 2011 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Blog, Mountain Biking Uk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
